Is there a general "good time to look" for cancelled FP?

[KatLight]

We're less than 30 days out from our trip now, so I've been booking our FP at 7 sharp every morning. The best ones are obviously usually booked up, but I've gotten extremely lucky so far and managed to get 16 people overlapping times at 7DMT and PPF. (I'm booking for the whole extended family.) No luck on FEA, but I'm not particular surprised there, lol, we'll hit that up at rope drop on our Epcot day.

The booking is done now, at least for the most part. However, there were a few things I didn't manage. Eg. One family of 5 (2 parents, 3 girls) really wanted FP for Enchanted Tales with Belle and I haven't had any luck there. While we're all thrilled with what we've managed so far, I'm wondering if, aside from booking FP the second you can, there's another time when people often cancel their FP and thus create more openings. Like, is there a time a few days before when people tend to change plans and cancel reservations? Or should I just tell my family that there's no realistic chance of getting these FP anymore and they'll just have to do standby?

Realistically, we're doing MK on a MVMCP Tuesday, so it should be slow enough that the lines aren't too prohibitive... but I like to cover my bases and pre-plan whenever possible, so if there's a chance I might have better luck a few days before (or a week before, or the night before, etc), I'd like to work with my best options. Thanks!

 

[hiroMYhero]

Or should I just tell my family that there's no realistic chance of getting these FP anymore and they'll just have to do standby?

In MK, there's always the chance of booking a ride as the 4th or 5th FP of the day. For tonight, Enchanted Tales is still available.

For future trips for a large group, you may want to read the Throwaway Room thread to open up the 60-day window for your group. Any offsite guest grouped with an onsite guest shares the 60-day FP booking window.

 

[KatLight]

In MK, there's always the chance of booking a ride as the 4th or 5th FP of the day. For tonight, Enchanted Tales is still available.

For future trips for a large group, you may want to read the Throwaway Room thread to open up the 60-day window for your group. Any offsite guest grouped with an onsite guest shares the 60-day FP booking window.

Oh wow, I just read through that thread... wish I'd seen it earlier! We plan to buy Magic Bands for our family of 7, so that right there would have made it worth the cost, let alone the early access to FP and free parking. Going to have to keep that in mind for next time.

 

[Churla27]

I would just recommend to keep checking. I will share my Disney Magic moment from yesterday. I have a party of 7 that was originally supposed to go the week of the Hurricane, but was able to change my reservations moved to mid-Nov. We are staying off property, so for the October dates, I was ready to book FPs the second they opened each day. I could not get a single 7DMT FP for any of our dates in October. This past week the 30-day window opened for my MK Nov dates. Again, no FPs available on either date for 7DMT. However, yesterday afternoon I just happened to go check and Disney extended the park hours for the MK for both dates we were there. This allowed me to get FPs for 7DMT right after the fireworks the first night and another set for the following morning. So you never know when it will happen. Also, because we were late in deciding to book this trip, I was unable to make any character dining reservations at any of our parks. However, yesterday a reservation happened to open for our group at the Crystal Palace for lunch. You never know when the Disney Magic is going to strike!